Chapter 7 - The Footage Before the Crying
Travis carried Jonah to the hallway and placed him safely in the bassinet beside the home office.
Brooke remained seated on the nursery floor, wrapped in a blanket.
“I’m calling an ambulance,” Travis said.
“I’m okay.”
“You are not okay.”
Lorraine stood near the door.
“This is ridiculous.”
Travis pointed toward the far wall.
“Do not move.”
For once, she obeyed.
He opened the secured server panel inside the office cabinet.
The backup recording appeared in short motion-triggered clips.
8:16 a.m.
Lorraine entered the nursery alone.
She checked the hallway.
Then she removed a tiny clear object from her purse.
She lifted the crib blanket.
She placed it beneath one corner.
Brooke was not in the room.
Lorraine then took Brooke’s prescription bottle from her pocket.
She opened it.
Removed two capsules.
And slipped them into the pocket of her pink jacket.
Brooke covered her mouth.
Travis’s jaw clenched.
The next clip showed Lorraine carrying Brooke’s phone from the bedroom.
Another showed her unplugging the main camera.
Then came the worst one.
Lorraine stood beside the crib and practiced speaking toward the camera she believed was dead.
“She has been confused for days.”
She paused.
Then tried again.
“I was afraid she would hurt him.”
Another pause.
“She took too many pills.”
Brooke whispered, “She rehearsed it.”
Lorraine lunged toward the server.
Travis stepped in front of her.
“Back up.”
“You are misunderstanding.”
“You planted something in the crib.”
“It was for protection.”
“Protection from what?”
Lorraine’s lips tightened.
“From her.”
Brooke stared at her.
“You wanted Travis to find me near it.”
Lorraine said nothing.
Travis rewound the first clip.
He zoomed in on Lorraine’s wrist.
Her watch face reflected the clear object.
Inside it was a tiny dark center.
Not medicine.
Not glass.
A device.
Daniel had once shown Travis something similar during a corporate investigation.
A micro-recorder.
Lorraine had hidden a recording device beneath Jonah’s blanket.
But why?
Then Travis saw the timestamp.
The recorder had been placed before Lorraine began provoking Brooke.
She had planned to capture something.
A scream.
A threat.
May you like
Anything she could use.
👉 Lorraine had staged the morning to make Brooke sound dangerous—but the recorder contained a voice Lorraine never expected it to capture.
